Review : Rakht Charitra

I discarded my first draft of this review and have restarted again. The act owes itself to a guilty conscience of having suggested Rakht Charitra to a friend while walking out of the theatre. The recommendation was honest and I would still recommend it to fans of Ram Gopal Varma. There seemed to be a marked improvement in several aspects that had been his forte but had slowly turned into indulgent excesses in his later films. But when I sat down to write this piece, each of those improvements had a caveat attached to it. Which made me wonder whether this was a reversal in the trend or just a breather in the downward spiral. So out went that draft and I begin afresh without letting either Ramu's erstwhile fanboy or one of his biggest critic in recent times take over my objectivity.

Despite the caveats, I do want to mention a few things that led to my initial positive response. These are things that used to be the forte of RGV till they morphed into indulgent excesses in recent years. There are some scenes involving visceral violence that are bound to put off the sensitive ones and in some cases, even give bouts of discomfort to the hardened ones. There's a marked improvement in the cinematography with the lighting being much better than the trademark darkness of his films. The cutting is much more relaxed than usual and as a result, one can soak in some finer details from the scenes. The fact that Ramu is on home ground (Andhra, politics, violence) also throws up a few nuanced touches like the jewelry & costumes. Most importantly, there was a sincere enough attempt at doing justice to the biopic of a politician/mafiosi.

Now, the caveats. The violence is borrowed straight out of the Takeshi Kitano school of reel gore. The fact that I had watched Kitano's Outrage (a film depicting some ingenious ways of killing) just the previous day made it all the more irritating. The attempt at doing justice to the subject sadly remained just that, an attempt. There could have been quite a few interesting characters that could have represented a fuller picture of the political reality of that time, but they all end up in cliched mediocrity…either cutouts or false-starters or non-starters. And while the cinematography did impress me largely, there was a noticeable smattering of weird angles (one of them involving a complete rotation of perspective…migraine inducing).

The feeling that Ramu could have lost it all gets strength from some parts of the film that go fair and square into the absurd territory. There's this character of a female police officer played by Ashwini Kalsekar that defies all logic on the reason for her presence in the film and the attention given to her. Talking of police, I also wonder if there was any hidden symbolism in getting a senior police officer to obsess on chewing a stick of sugarcane in his only scene in the film. And of course, the no Ramu film can be complete without the ever present loud BGM. To add to the cacophony in Rakht Charitra, we have a voiceover narration which features a screechy voice, amateurishly written lines (there are at least 3 different dialects of hindi used in the voiceover) and redundant contribution (whatever the voiceover says is explained again through visuals).

Glaring inconsistencies in the writing also make me wonder about the application (or the lack of it) in the scripting process. We have another police officer (also in his only scene in the film) first mentioning that the police should work within the framework of the law and within a minute talks about the police playing their "game" at the right time. The film is set in a fictitious town (Anandpur as opposed to the real Anantapur) with fictitious names (Pratap Ravi as opposed to the real Paritala Ravi) but a certain part of the film mentions the real name of a building where a crucial event in the film takes place just to stress on the realism quotient.

As mentioned earlier, most of the characters are badly written. The only exception is that of the psychotic & debauched Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu Singh), the main villain. But Abhimanyu fails the character with his monotonous expression. The performances display a similar graph…regulation stuff from the actors with one explosive performance slightly redeeming a badly written character. Shatrughan Sinha packs a punch in his performance as Shivaji Rao (the NT Rama Rao parallel) but the character (one of the biggest names in the political history of independent India) is reduced to a cardboard cutout that can be found in any Ramu film involving politics. The other actors are mostly pedestrian.

I had gone into the film expecting a larger than life biopic. And what I got was a very cliched treatment of the subject. Interestingly, Ramu is doing a Kill Bill with Rakht Charitra. There's a sequel releasing in 4 weeks. Rakht Charitra concludes with a trailer of the sequel. And this is the first time I'm rooting for the film not to stay true to its trailer. The trailer is making it out to be a revenge drama. What I would have expected was the blanks in the political drama to be filled up. Even if the sequel does so to a reasonable extent in the background of the revenge drama, I would come out satisfied. Here's hoping for the disconnect between promos & films to continue with Rakht Charitra - II.

उड़ान

This piece of poetry, my first in Hindi, is inspired by Udaan, Vikramaditya Motwane's debut film. While watching the film, I pondered on the interpretation of flight as used in the title of the film. And that led to a thought on how we all perceive the term FLIGHT in different ways. I wrote the piece as a freeform experiment where I used the interpretation of flight as a metaphor while describing the disillusionment amongst youth, the abject materialism of the flower-power generation and the misguided spirituality of the senior citizens. The difference is further accentuated by the shifts in language and context in the 3 stanzas. Without much ado...

उड़ान

मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ...

सितारों को छूने के लिए नहीं
चाँद को चूमने के लिए नहीं
और न ही सूरज से ज़िद आज़माने को

मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ दुनिया को पीछे छोड़ जाने को|

जहाँ सपने कागज़ के बेमायने टुकड़ों में बस जाते हैं
जहाँ आगे बढ़ने की होड़ में सब पीछे छूट जाते हैं
जहाँ हमें सब कुछ खोना मंज़ूर है कागज़ के उन टुकड़ों को पाने को
मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ दुनिया को पीछे छोड़ जाने को|


मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ...

पर पॅकेज डील के लिए नहीं
फ्रीक्वेंट फ्लायर माइल्स के लिए नहीं
और न ही अपना स्टेटस उछालने को

मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ अपना कीमती वक्त बचाने को|

अभी टैक्स लाएबिलिटी पर सर घुमाना बाकी है
अभी प्रोमोशनल कैम्पेन का जुलूस निकालना बाकी है
अभी और भी बहुत सी जिम्मेदारियां हैं निभाने को
मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ अपना कीमती वक्त बचाने को|


मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ...

मुक्ति के उन्माद के लिए नहीं
सत्चिदानन्द के स्वाद के लिए नहीं
और न ही किसी सिद्धि को पाने को

मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ स्वामी की नाक उठाने को|

स्वामी का वचन ही एक सत्य है बाकी सब है माया
स्वामी की मीठी वाणी में सबने है प्रभु पाया
स्वामी को जो न माने प्रण है उनको तुच्छ दिखाने को
मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँ स्वामी की नाक उठाने को|

Fuck you very much

This was a year end piece of poetry I'd written as a tribute to all the people & things that touched my life in 2009. The piece is titled Fuck You Very Much.

You knocked at my door twice this year.
Your tongue is honeyed, yet stings like a spear.
With a fistful of salt, we take each word you’ve spoken.
For all your promises are made to be broken.
You’re a marvel of sorts, O politician dear.
Fuck you very much.

I grew up watching you with involved and awestruck eyes.
I learnt a lot from you, virtue & vice.
But the relationship veered off the map.
As all you dish out these days is inane crap.
Pity, O idiot box, only in your old form were you nice.
Fuck you very much.

And then there’s this demon called corporate slavery.
I engaged with it all along mistaking it for bravery.
It forced me to compromise my values.
Good I realized in time I’d paid more than my dues.
And welcomed an uncertain freedom in lieu if a unsatisfactory salary.
Fuck you very much.

How can I leave out the dogma of society?
The repression of masses in the name of piety.
They say there’s only one right way.
And the thousands preaching them are always at bay.
Shunning any semblance of sobriety.
Fuck you very much.

Last but not the least, is you, the common man.
You keep absorbing this shit like nobody else can.
You’re in love with status quo.
Positive initiatives are always met with your NO NO.
You disgust me no end with your “Chalta Hai” deadpan.
Fuck you very much.